Collective Security and Collective Responsibility in International Interventions

Abstract

In an international system of sovereign states, such as the one that emerged from the Westphalia agreements of 1648, the challenges posed by persisting instability and war gave rise, through the Covenant of the League of Nations, to an attempt at designing a first multilateral approach to collective security. The concept represented an advanced commitment by the community of nations to enforce certain rules regarding the inadmissibility of the use of force in international relations. The United Nations Charter of 1945 established a renewed legal basis for coercive action to respond to breaches of peace, which has proved to be more long-lasting. The end of the Cold War revived interest in the possibilities offered by collective security. The traumatic experience of inaction in the face of mass atrocities in Rwanda, Bosnia, and elsewhere produced a new consensus, in 2005, on a collective responsibility to protect (R2P) civilians against genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. In turn, the tragic instability caused by military interventions in Iraq and Libya undermined the 2005 consensus. Widespread concerns regarding military action aimed at the protection of civilians were addressed in an initiative regarding the importance of also observing “responsibility while protecting.” Today, the search for a synthesis between collective security and collective responsibility is at the heart of multilateral discussions on the promotion of international peace and security.